The other local Joe

Almost 15 years ago, John Melancon moved forward with a risky idea: to start a new coffee company in a city with a dominant local brand. Melancon figured consumers needed more choices in coffee flavor, and he believed there was room for another product with a homegrown feel. He named the company River Road Coffees, a homage to the grocery store his grandfather Stanislaus Melancon had operated near the Sunshine Bridge in the 1800s.

Today, the company roasts and sells about 115,000 pounds of coffee a year—largely in Baton Rouge—through retail sales and corporate coffee service. With a staff of about six, including Melancon’s wife Sheila and son Ian, River Road Coffees is hands-on from start to finish. The team imports high-quality beans from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Tanzania and Nicaragua, which they blend and roast in small batches at their production site off Siegen Lane. Once cool, the beans are ground or left whole, then poured into signature metallic gold bags. The team makes sure they’re on local shelves or in offices through personal deliveries. The turn-around time from roaster to shelf is never longer than a week or two, says Ian Melancon, River Road’s chief taster.

John Melancon had worked in corporate food sales and later in coffee roasting for a North Carolina-based company and for Community Coffee. After launching River Road Coffees in 1997, he found a champion in local entrepreneur Deborah Sowers, founder of one of Baton Rouge’s first coffee shops, Perks. Sowers lent the Melancons the use of her roaster and shared her knowledge about teasing the best possible flavor out of beans.

The Melancons experimented with several different compositions and flavor profiles in an attempt to come up with River Road’s signature taste. “We had friends and neighbors constantly tasting for us,” John Melancon recalls. “We’d get all kinds of different opinions. But one day we had four of our five tasters agree and say, ‘That’s it. That’s the one.’ We knew we were on to something.”

River Road’s flavor profile is bold but features a smooth finish absent of aggressive edges. The so-called Baton Rouge Blend is the company’s workhorse. The secret blend of beans is roasted dark, medium, or the top-selling medium-dark. River Road Coffees also produces organic, decaffeinated and espresso options, along with its intense Orleans blend.

Growth has been steady since River Road Coffees began, which Melancon attributes to consistency and relationships. “We set high standards for ourselves,” he says. “We believe in following through.” riverroadcoffees.com